A recording sheet having perforations may be used in an image recording device such as an ink-jet printer. The perforated sheets may be bound into a loose leaf notebook or a system notebook after printing. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-91191 (hereinafter, referred as Patent Document 1) discloses printer that detects the perforations of a recording sheet. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-292949 (referred as Patent Document 2) discloses that executes a printing process based on information about perforations.
A printer device described in Patent Document 1 includes a photo coupler. The photo coupler includes a light emitting unit for irradiating light and a detection unit for detecting light. The light emitting unit opposes the detecting unit across the conveyance path. The signal intensity of the detection signal output from the photo coupler changes when the recording sheet that is conveyed along the conveyance path cuts in the light path from the light emitting unit to the detection unit and when the recording sheet gets away from the light path from the light emitting unit to the detection. Thus, perforations cut through the recording sheet can be detected according to a change in the detection signal output from the photo coupler. In the printer device, the image to be recorded on a recording sheet is turned upside down depending on whether or not perforations are detected. In other words, by detecting perforations at prescribed positions of the recording sheet, the printing device can detect a direction of the recording sheet with respect to the conveyance path.
A printing system described in Patent Document 2 includes a printer device and a personal computer (PC) that is connected to the printer device so that the printer and the PC are capable of communicating with each other. On the setting screen, the user of the PC can specify the positions and the size of the perforations. Then, based on the information that the user sets, the PC generates printing data that do not record any image in a region having a predetermined width from the edge along which perforations are cut. Subsequently, the PC sends the printing data to the printer. The platen of the printer is not smeared when a printing process is executed by the printer based on the printing data.